A satisfying simulation of the game of soccer must reflect the fast pace and skill, both mental and physical, that are inherent in the sport; it must strike a suitable balance between accurate strategic simulation and real-time arcade-style simulation.
One popular arcade-style simulation is called table soccer, or "foosball". A foosball table includes rows of representative athletes, suspended like pendulums from control rods that are mounted transversely above a playing field. Players slide and rotate the control rods to make the athletes kick a small ball into the opposing team's goal. Although foosball is an enjoyable game in its own fight, it does not simulate soccer particularly accurately, beyond representing a ball being kicked into two nets by two opposing teams of athletes.
Recently, arcade-style simulations have also been implemented on computers and video games. These games can be designed to strike a good balance between strategic simulation and real-time simulation. However, current computer and video game technology is restricted to simulating events using visual cues on a video display unit and audible cues from speakers; a sense of space and touch and the excitement of physical competition are still difficult to recreate. The computer or video game equipment can be quite expensive and is often tethered to a computer monitor or a television set. Portable electronic games exist; however, they are not well suited for groups of people to play or for spectators to watch.
Strategic simulation soccer games exist in a form somewhat similar to role playing games. A team of athletes, represented by die cast models or little cardboard chits, is strategically placed on a playing field. The athletes are moved according to a set of rules, and the game is advanced using a randomizer to simulate the complex relationship between chance and physical interactions; a typical randomizer comprises a set of dice and a probability table. One such example is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,710 granted to Feokhari on Jul. 6, 1993 for a "Soccer Game Apparatus". These games can be cheaply made but lack the pace and physical skill of the sport being simulated.
Cardboard novelties have also been developed that simulate the behavior of a sports projectile such as a basketball or a baseball. U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,905 granted to Lyons on Apr. 21, 1981 for a "Paperboard Toy Projector" and U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,124 granted to Bernard et al. on Apr. 14, 1992 for a "Collapsible Game Usable as a Promotional Device," teach the construction of such novelties for baseball, golf and basketball. These novelties are cheap to produce and can be briefly captivating; however, they tend to be target type games in their own right and not elements of a sports simulation which can sustain interest for longer periods.